Electrical industry safety toolbox webinar 2026

Electrical industry safety toolbox webinar 2026

Robert Wicks: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2026 Electrical Industry Safety Toolbox Webinar. My name is Robert Wicks, and I'm the Executive Director of the Electrical Safety Office. Thank you for joining us online. It's great to see so many of you have tuned in from all over Queensland. This morning, you'll hear from industry and electrical safety experts as they share lessons learned from workplace incidents, regulator updates, and practical guidance to workplace safety. Before we get started, just a couple of quick housekeeping items. If you have questions for any of our speakers today, please type them in the live Q&A box at any point on the right-hand side of your screen, and we'll answer them during the panel session. If you have any technical problems during the live stream, please make sure the sound of your computer is turned on, refresh your browser, and if you're still experiencing issues, contact us via events@oir.qld.gov.au. You can also change the size of your screen to full screen by selecting the four small arrows next to the volume bar at the bottom of your screen. Before we go to our first speaker, I'll take this opportunity to provide you with some information about a major achievement this year, which has been the completion of the Electrical Safety Regulation remake. The Electrical Safety Regulation 2026 commenced on the 1st of September and ensures Queensland's electrical safety framework remains contemporary, practical, and fit for purpose. The review process included significant stakeholder engagement with consultation that was undertaken in two stages. The first stage commenced in February of 2025 and sought feedback on the effectiveness, relevance, and efficiency of the existing regulation and opportunities for improvement. The second stage occurred between April and May 2026 and involved consultation on the draft regulation itself. Feedback was received from industry, workers, employers, unions, and other stakeholders, and that consultation provided us valuable insights into how the regulation could be made easier to navigate and apply in practice. Importantly, sunset reviews are not intended to introduce new policy. Where stakeholders have raised broader policy issues, those have been recorded for future policy consideration outside the scope of the regulation remake. So what has changed? Well, although policy outcomes remain unchanged, a range of structural and drafting improvements have been made. Sections and parts have been reorganised to better align with the Electrical Safety Act. Related provisions have been grouped together to improve usability. Additional references have been inserted throughout the regulation so users can more easily understand the relationship between the act and the regulation. Duplicative and redundant provisions have been removed, and definitions have been consolidated and relocated to improve accessibility. These changes make the regulation easier for duty holders, industry participants, and regulators to navigate and interpret. The regulation includes a comprehensive set of transitional provisions to ensure continuity. What that means is existing licenses, approvals, notices, and authorizations continue to operate. Any applications commenced under the 2013 regulation will continue to be dealt with appropriately under the transitional arrangements. This approach avoids unnecessary burden on industry and provides certainty for both stakeholders and regulators. One specific area to be aware of is that the safety management system provisions will commence on the 1st of September 2027. Those have been delayed to provide electricity entities with time to become familiar with the new structure. So what should industry do now? We encourage electrical contractors, workers, businesses, and industry bodies to familiarize themselves with the changes, review their procedures and training arrangements, and engage with the guidance materials being released by the ESO. You can find more information by visiting us at www.worksafe.qld.gov.au. There are several resources that have been developed. Those include a copy of the Electrical Safety Regulations, a summary of parts guide, and a table of comparison between the 2013 and 2026 regulation. That will be particularly useful in the early months as industry becomes familiar with the new numbering structure. If you have any questions from this update, please place them in the Q&A chat box now. I'd now like to introduce Keith McKenzie, Queensland's Commissioner for Electrical Safety. Keith was appointed commissioner in August of 2022 and brings extensive experience across the electrical industry, having started his career in 1986. After gaining his electrical fitter and mechanical licenses, he worked across a range of domestic, commercial, hospital, petrochemical, and industrial projects. Keith has served on a range of board and committees covering apprenticeship training, construction, workplace health and safety, and Australian standards. And before his appointment as commissioner, Keith spent considerable time on the Electrical Licensing Committee and the Electrical Safety Board. Keith is joining us today to talk about when safety fails and what we can learn and apply on-site. Welcome, Keith McKenzie.

Keith McKenzie: Morning, everyone, and great to see so many people here online. And I see a few of you got some notebooks there ready to take some notes. That's awesome. And people all from around Queensland are online, so thanks for getting up so early. Look, one of my roles, as commissioner, I chair the Electrical Licensing Committee, and from time to time, when the Electrical Safety Office and inspectors do investigations where an incident or accident happens, they'll be referred to our committee to consider a number of grounds exist. And one of those grounds is where the work is performed or supervisors, a person or property is not electrically safe, or the other one is when the person who actually performs the work, a person or property-- sorry, a person is either incompetent or negligent in the performance of their work. And these are the results for those who subscribe to the Electrical eSAFE. If you haven't subscribed, I suggest you do so. You can see from some of these actions, and obviously we don't identify the work or the electrical contractor, but far too many people are doing electrical work and not complying with the wiring rules. And the wiring rules tell you what you must do for electrical installations. So there should be no reason people don't comply to electrical work safely. And in some cases, people receiving electric shocks, apprentices receiving electric shocks, and it's not acceptable. And in fact, where we find someone who might be not competent, they'll be required to undertake a capstone assessment prior to getting their license back. And when it all goes wrong, it really comes down to people not being competent undertaking the task. Making sure as an employer, you provide that guidance support to that tradesperson or apprentice to understand the task at hand they're doing, and the person doing the work, are they competent or confident under doing undertaking that work? Are they confident and competent in doing testing and testing requirements correctly? And the contributing factors when people come to our licensing committee after we ask them a few questions, where it all goes wrong is that sliding door moment where there's time pressures. "I've got to finish the job early. I've got to go and pick up the kids from school," or, "I've got to finish this job. I've got to do, do another job the next day." It's peer pressure where the supervisor or the tradesperson say, "We must get this job done." And it's also perceived pressure, where you don't believe you've got the ability to ask someone for advice, or if you're not confident or competent to do that task or not just sure, ask a question or get someone else to do it. That's when we see things go wrong. It's by taking those shortcuts where we know we shouldn't do. The other one we're seeing is failing to isolate upstream. Isolating upstream shows that you don't, are not working on or near energised equipment. We understand we're working on power circuits. We might isolate at that switchboard.But working on that main board, it's so important that we isolate upstream.

And in fact, the new electrical safety regulations, as Rob spoke about, the new regs, whilst it's not been significant changes, it's more numbering changes, but the new change of Section 195, and write that down and have a look at it. It talks about electrical work on or near energised equipment, and it's so important that you understand that if you haven't done so. And isolating upstream, whether it be a pillar, a pole, or transformer, the committee done some work with Energex and Ergon to ensure that if you need to isolate upstream, you can actually do the appropriate training on their website, and it's free. So jump on and do that. And then seek to be authorized to isolate at the pillar and the pole. No excuse to potentially working on a live switchboard if you can isolate upstream. Electrical Safety Office has now launched their technical guides. They're available on the ESO website. Take the time to look at them, read them. All the information's there. Make sure you do it. It'll protect your license and maybe someone else that you're doing work for. Scan that QR code now if you need to. Too slow. I do the Commissioner communique. That goes out maybe twice a year. I can't compel you to read it, but I'd like you to do. I spend a bit of time writing that thing, and that gives you information, what's on the ESO website, what we're seeing in industry. It went out in July. Check your inboxes for that. And that goes to all apprentices, too, because we've got to set them up for success, make sure they understand the importance of our trade and our craft when we come out of their time. So take the time to read that. Connect up to electrical safety, eSAFE, and be aware of our great industry that we're working on. Electrical license for those who've got it, and you'll hear a bit more from Michael Heinemann about how to get that license when you're an apprentice. And thanks to all those apprentices viewing today. Four years to get that license, but it doesn't mean you're competent. That license allows you to do electrical work. It's about how you are being competent each and every day with the task that you're doing. Are you competent? Does your tradesperson or your supervisor, your manager deem you competent to test? Be proud of that license. We've got to protect you and the people you work for. Stay safe, protect the community, enjoy the trade. Thanks for watching.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Keith. Excellent presentation. Some really good points there. The difference between being competent and confidence, the importance of isolating upstream, managing risks when you're working on or near. A reminder to look out for the Commissioner's communique for information on electrical safety in the industry. If anyone has any questions for Keith who are watching us online, please remember, drop it in the Q&A chat box below. Question for Keith, and fire away. Next up, we have Michael Gibson, the Director of Field Services with the Electrical Safety Office. Michael is here to talk about priority areas of the ESO field services team. Please, everyone, welcome Michael Gibson.

Michael Gibson: Thanks, Rob, and good morning, everybody. We like to take this opportunity each year just to go back over what ESO priorities are. So what we're finding out there, what we're looking at, where our time's being spent. It's no surprises across those five areas that are on your screen. The working on or near energised electrical equipment will continue to be a priority because it's one of the biggest risks you're going to face performing electrical work on energised equipment. Testing and understanding installation standards, supervision, particularly of our workers and our young apprentices, unlicensed electrical work, those that continue to breach legislation and undertake that type of work, and contact with overhead and underground electric lines. So what I want to do is just expand on those five areas. It's probably just another reminder. These are the areas. Take this message, go back to your workplaces, and just consider how we are and you are addressing those key issues. So working on or near energised equipment, obviously the big change is the near. That's been 18 months now since that legislation changed, though everyone knows what it was and what it took to work on energised equipment. But now we've got those extra provisions in regard to working near. So, it's just another reminder. We're still getting incidents, some shock incidents, some significant burn injury style SEI type incidents where people are working near energized equipment and things are going wrong, and arc flashes are being created. So this is just another reminder, particularly if you're working in switchboards or working in equipment where you're removing and accessing energised parts, just to take that extra precaution and follow the rules that are actually stipulated in legislation.

So what does near exposed and energised equipment mean? We've got a pretty clear definition for exposed. Obviously, it's bare, it's not insulated, and it's not effectively guarded. So most people have got a pretty understanding of if I open up a piece of equipment, where are my exposed parts? Energised is obviously energised by electricity. So if I've got an exposed part, it's energised, and I'm performing electrical work, this legislation's going to kick in. There are a number of reasons why we have to perform work on or near energised electrical equipment, and that slide just shows a couple of those areas. Often it is necessary for equipment to be energised, particularly if you're working on or performing fault finding or maintenance. There are requirements to have that particular equipment energised. So our recommendation is you perform that work with your PPE, with your safe systems of work. Once you've determined where the issue is or the fault is, turn the equipment off and perform your repairs. So, lots of little areas there. When can I work? Now we've got a couple of high-end reasons for people have to work on energised equipment. We appreciate that, and so does legislation. Like it says there, you could be in a situation where there's life-saving equipment that has to remain on. We respect that, but there's other reasons to follow, and we'll cover that moving forward. Just to avoid a widespread outage, if I was in electricity entity or other areas, there's opportunities there to leave that equipment energised, but work in a safe system. And obviously, what I said before is in regard to testing. Particularly around what we want to really focus on when it comes to testing, every time I do an isolation and I've got to confirm I've correctly isolated that equipment, you are working on energised equipment until you've done those tests and confirmed it is effectively de-energised. So I think it's a really important point. So whenever you isolate a piece of equipment, you have to test to confirm it's been de-energised, and until that's done, you are working on energised equipment. Fault finding, like I said, there's lots of industry where we have to keep the machine energised to do some fault finding. And it all comes back to safe systems of work and risk assessment after that. And a lot of our testing as part of our wiring rules requirements does require that installation to be energised, particularly around polarity testing, if that's what you've got to do. Most important thing here is now that I've made a decision to work on energised equipment, I've got a couple of preliminary steps to undertake, and obviously competency of the people doing the work is a priority, and you've got systems in place, and you've done your risk assessment, everything's marked, and you authorize that work after you've consulted with the person who's got control of that installation. So go back to that section of legislation. If you've made a choice to do it energised, make sure those preliminary steps are undertaken. The testing of electrical work and compliance with installation standards is still a big issue in our industry. A big focus for us and a lot of our engagement work is about raising the awareness of correct testing of electrical installations. We all could make mistakes in the process where we hook up to an installation where there already was a defect. So quality testing in what's detailed in Section 8, you follow that process, you do your testing, you will pick up those areas where there's a missing earth or a polarity issue. So we cannot ever underestimate the importance of correct testing and understanding what are the requirements of the relevant installation safety standards. Now, we all know there could be a specific standard in whatever area you're working. If you're working in a medical facility, you're working on PVC, or you're installing batteries, there are some very strong standards now that you have to follow. One of the big areas there is about, it's not only about the safe work that you do in the testing, but it's ensuring that installation is electrically safe and the protection's going to operate correctly after you've energised it. That's what testing can do. These are the main standards we we probably are finding defect areas in. Now that we have a really big increase in the installation of PV solars and batteries, it's a very complex industry now. Domestic installations are not as simple as they were. We've got multiple sources of supply. So you really need to understand all the relevant standards that you need to comply with on top of the wiring rules to meet the requirements for safety and to ensure that that end user's going to be electrically safe. So have a good look at those standards and spend a bit of time understanding the intricacies of each of those documents, because every battery installation can be a little bit different. Every manufacturer may have differing manufacturer's instructions. So awareness about that is really important in our industry. Supervision of electrical workers and electrical apprentices. Once again, bad supervision will end up with bad workers and developing bad behavior. So good supervision is what our industry needs. It develops our workers and provides a safe work environment. So we're not just talking about apprentices, of the electrical workers as well. So, we employ a worker, like Keith said, they've got a blue card in their pocket, stage one, and now they need to be inducted and mentored as new employees. They need to be provided all the appropriate levels and a good understanding of the process your business has in place and what you expect that worker to follow. And that's what supervision's about, and then once they start the working process, then you audit it to ensure that they're following your particular work practices. Our apprentices, they are our future. So we want them to start in a really strong way. We want them to have really good supervision. Remember that when they come from a, whatever industry they've come from, they don't even understand risk assessment when it comes to working on energised equipment. So good supervision starts right at the front. Remember, our legislation's quite broad. It talks about the type of work, the adequacy of the training person, and obviously the competency of that training person. So as their competency builds, your supervision can reflect that. But apprentices need to be supervised at all times, and that's in legislation. So whether it's direct or other ways you're doing it, supervision is 100% all the time. We have a guide on our website, so if you haven't seen that or you are at an event where our wonderful blue trailer is, we've got lots of copies of that safe working, supervision guide. It's got lots of really good topics in it, from incidents and accidents to incidents, supervision of apprentices, electrical risk management, and health and safety responsibilities.

So it's a really good guide, not just for those that are doing the supervision, but they've also an apprentice what to expect, what is good supervision. So it's from both sides. So yeah, get on our website and get that document going. Unlicensed electrical work is our continual scourge in our industry. We still have people either working outside the scope of their license or performing electrical work completely unlicensed. So, we all know in our industry, people do not have the competency to correctly test if they're going to do unlicensed work, and that's going to create a risk. So we spend a fair bit of energy looking at online platforms, monitoring those advertisements for electrical work to ensure only licensed people are picking up work on those platforms. So, just remember, it's illegal. We will continually look for it and monitor it. It's a dangerous practice and you could affect the insurance provisions of the property where you're doing the work. So do not do unlicensed work. Thank you. Thanks, Rob.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Michael. Some great points there, picking up on those themes around, again, managing risks of working on or near, the importance of testing and compliance with installation standards, what effective supervision of apprentices and other workers in your workplace looks like, the dangers of DIY, and the work that we're doing to combat unlicensed electrical work. If any of you watching have any questions for Michael, please do drop them into the Q&A chat box below. Next up, we have Carl Porritt, Director of the Equipment Safety Team within the Electrical Safety Office. Carl will be exploring what it means to work safely with electrical equipment and how to comply and understand the electrical equipment safety system. Please join us with Carl, who'll be talking about some really important bits of the EESS. Thank you.

Carl Porritt: Thanks, Rob. Yes, equipment safety. For me, there's three tenets. If you've got a good safe supply and network, if we've got good safe installations, and we've got good safe equipment, we've got a good safety net for the community dealing with electricity every day. I'm going to explain a little bit about the electrical equipment safety system, and what that means compared to other types of equipment. Basically aiming to give you a bit of a more in-depth understanding, so hopefully you can make some decisions and help your clients understand how they should be making choices when they purchase equipment. The electrical equipment safety system, it's a framework designed because the community in general, around the household appliances, they don't have a person in control. They don't have a duty holder responsible for ensuring that the workplace is electrically safe. They don't have to have systems and safe work systems. So we've always had legislation that has stronger requirements around the household equipment, and that's the framework we call the EESS or the EESS, Electrical Equipment Safety System. It's intended to work nationally with some of the other regulators. And the ultimate aim is to improve safety for the consumer. And being household equipment, the definition there, it's designed around a lot of the appliances around the home. Technically, it's anything above 50 volts AC or above 120 volt DC, but below high voltage as well. So it talks about being marketed or designed for household equipment because, you can go to Bunnings and you can get that power tool that says, industrial or commercial. Just having a label on there saying commercial doesn't mean it's not household, really. So we talk about that Bunnings test. You can go and buy it. Anyone can buy it. You buy it online, and use it around home. It's generally caught in scope, so captured by the system. We don't capture commercial industrial equipment. And at the moment, there's no extra low voltage electrical equipment captured by it. So the legislation deals with those in other ways. Now, the complexity that we try to explain to industry is around the dynamic nature, I suppose. We want to have more safety around those higher risk equipment, and we need to be able to move the equipment up and down as we see incidents or trends occurring. If we start to see a product occurring in fires, we want to increase the requirements around that to make sure that the products are more independently assessed to be electrically safe. So I'll briefly go through those. Now, the household appliances, microwaves, ovens, a lot of the stuff around the home is level three. And again, it does include stuff behind the walls and in the switchboards. So it doesn't have to be an appliance used by the consumer. They're just electrical items in the home that come within scope. So the level three, equipment there, that requires the suppliers to do a little bit more, which we'll go into a little bit more depth shortly. Level two is the second one there. There's a few less items in there at the moment, but some of the examples we've got there are floor and polisher scrubbers, flexible heating pads, projectors, because we're not seeing the same incidents over time. So, maybe they might drop to the next one, which is level one. Level one is really anything that's not level two and not level three. There's so much equipment out there and new things coming onto the market all the time. So, level one's that catchall, but it again doesn't include commercial industrial, and that's one of those issues we see. Some industry get that confused. So, fixed luminaires are level one, that's one of those very, very common items out there. It's installed by electricians. So, we've got the confidence that they're generally installed safely. But a lot of people assume they're level three because they're in the home. The underlying issue, though, is that all electrical equipment is required to be electrically safe. So that applies to household, industrial, commercial, or anything. Now, to do that, there's an Australian standard that gives essential safety criteria. But we require all those importers and onshore manufacturers to ensure that equipment is electrically safe. That applies to the workplace as well. If the duty holder's bought a whole lot of welding machines straight from overseas, they still need to be satisfied that the equipment's electrically safe to meet those duties. So there are ways and means to do that. Generally, it's quite technical, through test reports. Going back to the electrical equipment safety system, this regulatory compliance mark you can see on the screen there, that's the real black and white test to when you're going and looking for equipment, looking for the label online. In the fridge, you open the door these days, you can see the rating label. You should see the RCM there. That tells you that the responsible supplier has made efforts and a declaration to ensure that their products meet all the legislative requirements.

That's what we're going to really work on in time and try to educate the community about making those purchases safely by, first of all, looking for the RCM. Now, this diagram's a little bit fine there, but really trying to just demonstrate that the responsible suppliers have to do a number of different things. It depends on the risk levels there. So for level three, they need this independent certification. For level two, they need quality test reports. And for level one, they need evidence in English to demonstrate it complies with the relevant standard. So once the supplier's got that, they hold that evidence, they mark their products with the RCM, and they register on the EESS platform. So that's what they've got to do. But where you come into it is really that last part there. If we take a little bit of a closer look there, obviously once the importer sells it to the retailer, that we still need to ensure that the products are safe coming through the shops there. So there's requirements on the retailer to ensure that when they buy in-scope electrical equipment, it's bought from a registered responsible supplier. Now, they normally would check that by checking the EESS platform and looking for the equipment or looking for the supplier. And that's where we can issue notices. If we go to a store and find that the product's not marked with the RCM or not registered, we can issue stop sales notices, etcetera. But as electrical contractors, often you're part of that sale as well. You're normally buying from a wholesaler. You have all those items in your truck. You might be buying a hot water storage system, like I'm just getting at the moment, mine blew up. That's got to come from a reputable supplier, and it's got to be registered on the EESS platform. So you can go and check these items yourself. So just think about that. You've got some responsibilities as well. You want to ensure that the product you're buying is electrically safe. And if you're buying products directly from overseas on Alibaba, you become the responsible supplier. You've got a lot more obligations to fulfill before you can actually supply that goods. So there's more information available on the EESS platform there. There's a public search. You can often look up items and check that they're registered. There's a little image search there, too, that's a bit of a work in project. But you could take a photo of the rating label of the appliance, submit it online there, and see if it comes back and shows that it's registered. So as we progress, we're hoping to raise more awareness about the RCM. So, share with your families and make sure if you're going out shopping for goods in the stores, have a look at the rating labels and look for the RCM. Go to the website and do some searches yourself. And we'd love to get some feedback on how the imaging scans work as well. So thanks for that. Look forward to hearing some Q&As from you.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Carl. Great presentation. Really helpful to help understand a bit more about the EESS. I think some of the key takeaways there for me are the distinction. I like the Bunnings test. Marketed towards household use and doesn't apply to commercial industrial equipment. Really useful for everyone to understand where to find the RCM and how consumers can look for more information and check to see that an appliance is registered on the database to ensure it's being tested for safety. Really good points, and thanks again. A reminder, if you have any questions for Carl, please jump on and pop them in the Q&A chat box. Next up, we have Michael Heinemann, the manager of the licensing team within the Electrical Safety Office. Michael will be providing us with a quick licensing update. Welcome, Michael.

Michael Heinemann: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for giving us your time this morning. I know it's important and valuable. Today, I think what I'll do is just recap on a few things that have popped up over the last 12 months, just to make some reminders, give you some advice in relation to our system, in relation to apprentices, in relation to a number of other things. So first off, I'll start with completing apprentices. Now, what is the story? What can they do? What do you need to do? What do they need to do? How do you know they're licensed? So I guess I'll just put it out there straight up, that once that training contract is finished and the apprenticeship is finished, they're no longer an apprentice. That means they can no longer do electrical work unless they're a licensed worker. And I'll also point out that that process does not happen automatically. So there's a few things you do need to do to make sure that that time between the contract finishing and that apprentice being licensed is as minimal as possible so they can get back to work for you. So a few things I'll say, that the apprentice needs to make the application. This can be done at the completion of the apprenticeship. The most efficient way to do that is using our new online system that went live in November 2024. It's okay, though, if you don't want to use that system, which requires a digital ID to use. We can do that manually for you, but it will take just slightly longer because there are manual processes involved. Be engaged with the RTO, with your apprentice, with your apprenticeship support network, or the Queensland Apprentice Training Office. If there is a blockage or you're not seeing something progress, find out where it is. There's a number of moving parts that are required to be done. They all culminate coming to us as the Electrical Safety Office to confirm items have been done, and sometimes we can find that there's a little hold up somewhere. That's where you come in to find out what is the hold up. The other thing I'll just point out, particularly when that application is being made, be engaged with that RTO, as I said, but make sure there are no outstanding items on that training contract or training plan. Sometimes you'll find that nothing's progressing, the capstone's done, but there might be an outstanding competency that the apprentice hasn't submitted enough work for. So can't stress that enough about being engaged with that training contract. You're a part of it, you sign it off. So I just want to make that very important to you guys. Okay, next thing. What is an electrical license? So we've had a couple of issues pop up recently around electrical licenses or not being able to work on a site without producing a card, or actually people producing cards to do work for people that might be counterfeit. So I want to just highlight in this space that the card is a representation of the license. Where you go to source the truth is from our online register. The QR code on the screen there takes you to our register. You can actually plonk in the details, plonk in the number, plonk in the name, do the search. There are a number of ways to search it. That is the source of truth. If you have applied recently for an electrical work license or a contractor license, you'll get an email saying, "Hey, your application's been approved. You're now licensed." You can get that detail from the register. The register also provides you an opportunity to actually print out a certificate which you could use to say, "Hey, I've got them licensed." We have had a number of instances where people have gone to seek employment, they've produced a card, and the employer has done their due diligence in just confirming the information, find out the person's not licensed. Also, for those in the community, we use this as a mechanism that when the electrician comes to your house to do work, check the license number. Are they licensed? Or if they're looking for a contractor, check the number that's on the ad, make sure it is valid. So one simple way of keeping our community and our industry safe to make sure people are appropriately licensed. Next little topic I want to talk about is around licenses and training permits. So what is the difference? What are they there for? What are they used for? So obviously, an electrical license will allow the performance of electrical work unsupervised. When it comes to electrical work training permits, they actually are a type of license and, as the name suggests, it's linked to training. So under electrical work training permit, a person has to be supervised all the time. They're obviously engaged in completing some training. The training will potentially involve off-job learning, and then they need to come back to the workplace to gather some evidence, which goes towards determining competency. So it's very important while those people have a training permit that they are supervised appropriately. Obviously, the person who supervises them must have the appropriate license as well. These permits obviously don't permit anyone to do any type of electrical work. It'll be stated on what the scope is. And they are only valid for 12 months. So, I'd probably question if it's taking you longer than 12 months to do what you need to do, what's happening? The other thing with permits we'll just mention as well, they are only issued in specific circumstances. So there is a need to fill a gap to get a license, not just a permit for anyone seeking to get any type of license. Authorised persons. I probably want to touch on this one, guys, because it's a new terminology that was introduced with our online portal. As it says there on your screen, that'll tell you what an authorised person can do in relation to a contractor license. So as an example, if you are the general manager of a medium-sized company, you may be the only one that can access and deal with or renew your electrical contractor license. So you may authorise someone else to do that work on your behalf. So those people, when we transitioned over from our old database, anyone who was associated to the contractor license were automatically made an authorised person. So if that's something that you haven't gone and had a look at in the system, I'd recommend you do that to confirm the authorised persons are who you want them to be. If you don't, you can do that through our portal and remove them. If you are a qualified technical person or a qualified business person on a contractor license, you are able to go in and remove yourself from that, but you may not be able to make any other changes to that license, such as renewal or adding something else or making a change. For any new license applications going forward, the person making the application for the contractor license does have to nominate persons to be authorized if they would like them to be so. If you're adding a QTP, but you also want them to be an authorized person to make changes, make sure you tick the two boxes to have that status applied to that person. My last topic this morning is probably one of the most important ones, is around CPR and rescue. I want to just touch on, there's a number of bits of legislation that do involve this, and it's quite important. As we've heard through Electrical Safety fortnight so far, we always think it will never happen to me. But the other speaker we had on Tuesday at the Apprentice Forum and at the summit yesterday, it did happen to him, and he was probably thankful of the procedures and the rescue techniques and the training that his colleagues had received to make sure he was safely retrieved and was able to survive. So a few things I want to touch on. If you're a worker involved in completing electrical work, you must be trained in resuscitation and rescue procedures. That's a duty of your employer, and that's under Section 211 now of the new Electrical Safety Regulations. So write that down too, Keith. That one, that's an important one. That's one thing, guys. The other part I want to point out where it comes into legislation is just the eligibility for your electrical work license. So if you, apart from lines persons, all of us need to be competent in resuscitation to revive someone who's received an electric shock and has stopped breathing. So that's a bare minimum. If you are a line worker, depending on your restrictions, it'll either be pole top rescue or tower rescue. Just on that, guys, you must remain current in your rescue competencies to maintain the eligibility for your license. I will point out that it is one of the conditions for us to actually go and see the committee if you don't maintain your eligibility requirements. So please make sure you are keeping that up to date. The third bit of legislation that cuts across around requiring these skills is what Michael Gibson touched on, which is around working on or near. Now, when we look at the parts of the legislation that talks about how you do that work, there is a bit in there that says, under the supervision of a safety observer. Yes, there are some caveats for not requiring one, but again, we have a definition of what a safety observer is. It talks about being competent in resuscitation and rescue. So they're the three bits of legislation that really cut across the rescue and CPR competencies required in our industry. They're linked to maintaining your license. They're linked as a person conducting a business or undertaking to make sure that you have those skills for your workers to keep safe should an incident happen. And also, if you are going to perform certain types of electrical work, being on or near. So I really want you guys to take away, don't treat CPR like a tick in the box at your license renewal. While we don't audit it, you never know, we might do in the future just to make sure you are keeping your competencies there and you do actually have them. Keep your training up to date, stay confident in your skills, and be ready to act when you need to. That's the most important thing. And make sure that if it does happen, you can save your mate. Thanks for your time this morning. I appreciate it.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Michael. Great advice, particularly for apprentices in our industry and what happens when they complete their apprenticeship, understanding some of the differences between a training permit and a license. And I think that last reminder about staying current and competent with your rescue and resuscitation training is a point well made. If anyone watching online has any questions for Michael, please don't forget to drop them in the Q&A chat box. Before we get to our panel discussion, we've prepared an industry case study to share with you this morning. You've heard from our speakers about the dangers of working on or near, the importance of upstream isolation, and recently, Keith spoke with Luke. Luke's a licensed electrical contractor who's going to share his story about an incident that changed his life. Luke is lucky to be alive and be able to share his personal story with us today. For those of you tuning in, this discussion covers the impacts of electric shock. If anything discussed raises concerns for you or you'd like some additional support, please refer to the support services on the screen. Now, let's hear from Keith and Luke about what happened and his personal message to other electrical workers.

Interview with Keith McKenzie and Luke:

Hey, Luke. How are you?

I'm good. How are you?

Tell us a bit about yourself.

Started out my apprenticeship as a marine electrician, moved into residential, ultimately moved into industrial controls, construction equipment.

Yeah, three-phase pumps, mobile plant equipment, yeah, that sort of thing.

Family?

Yeah, I've got two young girls and a wife and yeah.

Any hobbies?

Bit of camping, four-wheel driving, fishing. Yeah, whenever I get a chance. I like to get away.

The average family guy.

Yeah.

So on that day, Luke, you turned up to work. What was the environment like where you're working?

The homeowner just demolished and rebuilt a new house on the existing property.

We work on a switchboard. It was mounted to a property pole external to the house.

Yeah, it was a blue skies, sunny afternoon, but it was really damp on the ground, like it had been raining earlier that day, but nothing out of the ordinary, like it's—

You've done this sort of work before?

100 times. It's just another, just another job. It's another job.

And when you started the job, did you undertaking your risk assessments or would it be verbal or written down on paper?

Yeah, it was a verbal risk assessment, so me and my offsider, we deemed that it was necessary for the tool to be there.

Basically, what we're doing, we were running the sub mains to the new house into an existing switchboard and replacing the sub busbar to accommodate the extra load.

It was just a conversation. It was an informal conversation.

We had a main switch, we isolated the main switch.

We had a four P pole water circuit present, so we discussed that.

So the board was turned off at the main switch?

It was isolated at the main switch, and what we're doing, we're removing the existing busbar, replacing that with a longer one to incorporate the new…

It was just a standard job. It was nothing.

So as you're undertaking that task, tell us then what happened.

So I had my left hand on the left-hand side of the switchboard.

I was using my right hand to… The job was done.

We were just going back over all the terminals while I was making sure everything was tight before we energised.

With my right hand, I was focused on my right hand, and then I received a shock that was… I couldn't explain it because I couldn't understand why I was getting a shock.

Because your board was turned off.

The… Yeah, the main switch of the board was turned off.

Yeah. As I said, without, just complacent, I guess, my left hand dropped down to the top of the main switch.

Consumer's mains were feeding into the main switch because we had the busbar going underneath.

So, yeah, so my left hand dropped down on top of the, across the three phases and between the main switch and, it earthed out.

Because you weren't wearing gloves, were you?

No, I wasn't. No.

And were you… Did you get one shock and you let go, or were you hooked up?

I couldn't let go. I was hung up. I was, yeah.

And that's what I was a bit confused about because I was focused on my right hand, what I was… I wasn't holding onto anything.

And for the people watching this, what do you mean you couldn't let go?

It's just all your muscles everywhere just contract.

It just feels like everything, your shoulders pull in, everything.

You just lose all control over your muscles.

I tried to call out to my offsider. I knew he was there around me somewhere, but I couldn't turn around to see him. I couldn't… I tried to call out to him. I couldn't get any words out. It was just, yeah.

You couldn't let go.

It's frightening, yeah.

How did you get off?

He got me off.

Oh.

Yeah. He told me he followed his training, tried to do the fly kick multiple times. He's… We had jokes later, you know, around, he liked to be able to kick the boss in the ribs. And he got the opportunity.

Yeah, very thankful that he did.

You know when we're working on or near energised equipment—about being safe and isolated upstream, and that safety to observers and rescue kids, but you didn't seem to need…

You thought it was, the board's turned off, it's safe to work on, other than the line side live. There was no need for that.

Yeah. I knew where it was. I knew what was live. I knew not to touch it.

So I didn't…

You know, it's a job I've done 100 times before.

I didn't feel that there was any risk because I knew not to touch those terminals.

And inadvertently, on a day doing a task, that's what happened.

Just made contact, yeah.

I understand that after your offsider got you off and performed CPR and contacted the ambulance, you were taken to hospital.

Yes.

Tell us about what happened in the hospital that you remember.

I remember the trip to hospital was long. It was, I remember, yeah, I remember looking up at the heart monitoring machine, and I remember just seeing the numbers 156 beats a minute. I was watching.

Well, lucky it was still going, your heart.

Yeah, yeah.

When you went to hospital and they did the monitoring, what other injuries did you have?

I remember because of my muscle contractions, my teeth, all my teeth went loose because just… clipping down so hard. You know, days later, I just felt like my kneecaps were going to come up my knees. It was just the pain everywhere. Everywhere.

They talk about, they talk about when you have electric shocks, it also affects emotions.

Yes.

Did you experience any of that?

Yeah, it was, you know, it's a shock to the confidence. It's a shock to, like, emotions, like anxiety just driving to work in the morning.

Like, when you know the job ahead of you, like if you know you're going to be working on a switchboard today, you're going through the job in your head and it's… you know, change of perspective.

Yep. Well, speaking of perspective, so if you went to do that same job tomorrow—what would you do differently?

Upstream isolation.

Yeah. I don't… There's not even a second thought to it now. It's—The hazard's electricity and you've got to remove it to ensure that you get to home each day.

That's right. That's right. There's, just turn off the main switch is, you know, that's okay for working downstream, working in on the isolate, on the installation.

If you're working on the switchboard, you know, you need to isolate upstream of that.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Have you ever received an electric shock before this?

No. No.

There's quite a few electrical workers out there who received a shock, and we know your first shock could be your last.

What do you say to those people out there who, "She'll be right, a shock is a shock." What do you say?

No. No. Every job's different. Follow your safety procedures, your risk assessments. You know, it's not just a tick and flick. It's a reminder for yourself. It's identifying those hazards and then putting your controls in place to make sure you actually do put those controls in place.

Like, that's—There's a reason for it… there's a reason for it. It's not just a piece of paper. The piece of paper helps trigger your thought process on controlling the hazards that, you know, keep yourself safe to go home, to go home to your family each afternoon.

Yep.

So it's been a few months since the event. What's it like now waking up in the morning and getting in the car and going to work?

Oh, definitely it's lingering. It's in your mind. You know, some days are easier than others because you know what's ahead of you that day.

You can relate to that experience—yeah… of not to do them or say what to do.

Luke, it's a privilege having a chat to you.

It's—Not often do we have workers who receive a shock, then have CPR performed on them, get to meet them and talk to them. There's quite a few electrical workers, their first shock was their last shock, and not here today.

So it's a privilege having you here today talk and share your experience.

For the 67,000 licensed workers out there and the many thousand will come in our trade, telling your story here today and express the risk of working on energised equipment and how lucky you are, it's a privilege for you being here. So thanks very much, mate.

Thank you.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Luke, for sharing your experience with us. We acknowledge that it must have been very difficult to relive that day, and the courage it takes in sharing such an important message to anyone working in the electrical industry. Luke's story is a powerful reminder of the importance of recognising hazards, isolating upstream, and taking the time to assess the risks before starting work. If you have any questions about Luke's story, Keith is on our panel. We're about to start up next, and he's happy to answer any questions. So please type them into the Q&A chat box. So to finish today's webinar, we'll move on to the Q&A panel session. Thanks to everyone who has already submitted questions. If you haven't done so yet or you have some more questions, please type your name and question into the Q&A chat box to the right of your screen. I'd now like to welcome Keith, Michael Gibson, Carl, and Michael Heinemann back to answer the viewers' questions. The first one we'll start with is a question for Michael Gibson from Samantha in Bonner. Michael, what is one electrical safety rule that every apprentice should learn from day one?

Michael Gibson: Yeah, thanks, Rob.

When I look at this question, we've had an age-old mantra in the electrical industry for many, many years, and that's test before you touch.

And I think that stands on its own. For an apprentice to be part of that isolation process and learn to confirm correct isolation and test to ensure it's been effectively de-energized, I think it's a really important first step that they will carry right through their trade and onwards for every work they, and all other electrical work they perform. So, my number one rule would be test before you touch, Rob. It's really important. Thanks.

Robert Wicks: Great. That's excellent. Thank you, Michael. And we've got another one for you from Trish. If a technician attends site and finds unsafe or uncompliant electrical work, what are the obligations and processes to deal with the client?

Michael Gibson: Yeah, thanks, Trish. I'll cover in two quick areas, either a piece of equipment, it could be working on a piece of equipment, or it's part of the actual electrical installation. So if you believe it is in an unsafe condition, obviously the first priority is to make it safe. So do the disconnection, and if you're working in a domestic-style property or in a commercial or industrial type situation, talk to the people in control of that equipment so it can be effectively controlled, the risk, and also we can look at what it needs to do to be repaired.

If you believe that it's unsafe because of the performance of electrical work by somebody else, then obviously we would expect that to be reported to the electrical safety office, and we'll have an inspector attend site and look at the circumstances of the electrical work that was being performed and why is it unsafe, and we'll take the necessary action from that. So, thank you.

Robert Wicks: Great answer. Thank you, Michael. We have a question for Keith from Laurie. Is there a ratio of number of apprentices per tradesperson that needs to be adhered to?

Keith McKenzie: Well, there's no real ratio, Laurie. It should be one to one, certainly for the purposes of the first-year apprentices. They've got to work under direct supervision.

And in fact, the Queensland Electrical Safety Regulation determines that all apprentices must be supervised at all times.

Now, for those who read the Commissioner communique, and those who are about to after this presentation, there's an article in there about the work we've done for effective supervision for electrical apprentices, which is organized by TAFE.

It's a micro-credential course, and it's available free online.

So check out the communique. If not, go to TAFE Queensland website, and look for micro-credential courses, apprentices and effective supervision of electrical apprentices. And that'll take you through the role of the supervising tradesperson to ensure that apprentices are electrically safe, supervised at all times.

So if you've got an apprentice there working as a first-year, direct supervision all the time. But that tradesperson might be able to also then at the same time, maybe supervise maybe another third or fourth-year, depending on the skills and tasks they're doing at the same time. We know apprentices cannot supervise other apprentices.

Electrical apprentices can be only supervised by a licensed electrical worker of that same licensed outcome. So great question, Laurie.

Get on board, do that course, micro-credential for effective supervision for apprentices. In fact, everyone should do it, and also go to the ESO website and have a look at that guide available on there for apprentices and supervisors. Thanks.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Keith. We're back to you, Michael Gibson. This one's from Trish. What is the ESO doing to educate contractors on correct supervision?

Michael Gibson: Thanks, Rob. I think the first thing everyone should consider is what is the purpose of adequate and proper supervision? What am I doing it for?

It's for that worker to do their job effectively, but also do it safely.

So, the person needs to consider the type of work that's going to be performed. Have I done enough training so that person's competent to do the work?

And then follow that up with some auditing to see that they actually applied the correct training. What we do every time we can possibly engage in our electrical industry, we will talk about the importance of supervision.

We know what poor supervision is. We see incidences because of it.

We have a really good guide I spoke to earlier in regard to the supervision of apprentices. So, go onto our website, get the necessary information, but also we're happy to attend, have those toolbox talks, and have that really one-on-one discussion on the importance. We'd rather have it upfront than deal with the issues of poor supervision. So, really important. Thank you.

Robert Wicks: Thanks, Michael. A question for you, Carl, from John. Is electrical test equipment such as multimeters in-scope equipment as they can be used in the home?

Carl Porritt: A majority of multimeters are all extra low voltage, battery operated in your IR meggers, et cetera. So generally, no, they're not captured by the EESS. That's for equipment above 50 volts AC and above 120 volt DC. So no.

Robert Wicks: Well, thanks Carl, and another one for you from Samantha. A customer bought some dodgy lights directly from overseas and demanded I install them. Am I right to refuse to install them?

Carl Porritt: I think more than just right to refuse them. I think you really have a duty not to. Ultimately, you're responsible for that electrical work. You've got to leave that installation safe for the user. So, it goes beyond that, really. Just think about the liabilities of, the client's not going to be happy if something fails or their family member gets a shock. They'll still blame you. We'll still be looking at you for why did you install it knowing that it's unsafe. So yeah, I think it's a question. We do see complaints come in. We see inquiries saying the homeowner's complaining about electrician not installing something, but we hit smack them right back saying they got that right to do that. So yeah, I think it's a good decision to make.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Carl. One for Michael Heinemann from Peter. Is there a way to apply for a license before my apprenticeship ends so there is no gap between apprenticeship and being licensed?

Michael Heinemann: Certainly, you can apply for your license before your apprenticeship ends. However, as I mentioned, there is a number of elements we need to receive. Inevitably, there will be a gap, which is related to, for example, the Apprenticeship Training office confirming your apprenticeship is complete. When your contract's finished, a complete, a document is filled out called a completion statement that is signed by you, signed by your employer, signed by your RTO, all which have legislative elements linked to them. That is sent off to the apprenticeship area and to us at the one time. But, there definitely will be a gap, unfortunately. I've seen them turned around as quick as three days. Our average time now is about six days to turn around licenses, but there are other elements that do hold it up, which is why I mentioned being engaged. The other little bit in there that I spoke about last as well, was that you might get to your application process and realize that I haven't done my CPR in 18 months. That might take you two weeks to go sort out, which is something on you and your employer to sort out. So, yes, the answer to your question would be yes, you can, but I won't issue a license till I will have the necessary elements to actually issue a license.

Robert Wicks: Thanks, Michael, and hold the microphone. Another one for you from Scott: Is there a commitment to having non-digital ID methods to apply for and renew licenses?

Michael Heinemann: There certainly is. We certainly found out a lot more about this when we were introducing our new system. We legally cannot force people to use a digital ID. We'd be in trouble. We'd be in breach of federal law. So yes, there are ways to access our system without using a digital ID. As I said, it is a manual process. May take a little bit longer because we have to do manual things, such as pushing out payment links till you pay for your license application. And obviously we need to authenticate who you are, which is why we use a digital ID, which removes the need to send us that 100 ID point check, which obviously has to be validated and all that sort of stuff. But the short answer is yes, there is. So don't have any fear of it if you don't want to use a digital ID.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Michael. Ebony from the Gold Coast asks Michael Gibson: What causes more incidents, complacency or lack of knowledge?

Michael Gibson: Thanks, Rob. This is a really good question, and it's when I link complacency with distraction and everything else that can add to that and poor decision-making, then it's a major cause of incidents that we've seen over and over again where a person's doing a particular task, they've left the workplace, they've taken a phone call or something that's distracted them, and they haven't gone back and worked out where they were at in the work process. Complacency is also linked to poor decision-making. You're not prepared to follow that process that you knew about. You take a shortcut. I think complacency linked to all that would be a major cause of incidents that we are seeing daily. So it's a really big concern, and complacency is linked to culture. You want your workers to make good decisions because that's what they do in that workplace. So complacency and culture will work together. Great points.

Robert Wicks: Thank you, Michael. We're moving on to our last question. Sally from Eagleby asks Michael Heinemann: Can I get a training permit to complete the qualification Cert III in Electrotechnology Electrician to become an electrician?

Michael Heinemann: Thanks, Sally. Look, the short answer to that one is no. If you would like to become an electrician, you need to complete that Cert III, as you mentioned, gain that through an apprenticeship. So permits have a particular place for obtaining licenses, but to become an electrician, you must do that electrical apprenticeship. You have embedded learning over four years, to make sure that you are competent at the end of that, and we can issue a license.

Robert Wicks: Wonderful. Thank you, Michael. That brings us to the end of the Q&A session and to the end of our Industry Toolbox Safety Webinar. I'll take the opportunity to thank our panellists, Keith McKenzie, Michael Heinemann, Michael Gibson, and Carl Porritt, for their time this morning, and thank all of you for joining us here today. As we wrap up, I hope you have an excellent and safe electrical safety fortnight, and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you for joining us. Bye.